In the Bleachers Podcast

ESPNTriangle & 620 The Buzz: More On Leaving Recruits Alone

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:41 GMT

As you all should well know I took Tuesday to write a quick spot on Gunner Kiel and the way fans are reacting to a kid they don't know and his decision not to go to LSU. Ultimately it is something that has become a pet cause and rightfully so, adults being nasty to and about kids for a decision that they have no bearing on is getting out of hand. It is the ugliest part of the sport and "just ignore it" has absolutely not done anything positive. Time to try something new folks.

Thanks to Mike Maniscalco and Mark Thomas over at ESPN620 and ESPN Triangle I get the chance to talk a bit more about discouraging this type of behavior. Ultimately it has to be a peer focused effort because Joe Fan in Random State, USA likely won't change his tune because Michael Felder says it is unacceptable. It takes a cultural effort from individual communities; physical, fan and online communities, to stem the tied and change what they will and will not "be ok with" out of their populations. Thanks to Shannon Penn for the audio.

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ITB Podcast: Bomani Jones Tackles College Football

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:21:58 GMT

Big, big show today as we get long time friend of the program Bomani Jones on to talk about his most recent article over at his new spot, SBNation. You may also know Bomani Jones from his stops on Around the Horn, which he does again this Friday. Bomani wrote a nice piece explaining why, with so much going wrong in the world of college football, a playoff to sate the fans is far from the first thing that should be on folks' agenda. The premise of this is fantastic as college football pundits and fans alike devote such a major portion of their energy and passion to complaining about the BCS and advocating for a playoff on a damn near daily basis.

Jones and I don't waste much time early as we get right to the heart of the matter; the NCAA can't even get universities to cover the full cost of scholarships for the athletes involved or insure the players future at a university but folks are worried about how many more games they can squeeze out of these guys for their own entertainment? The rhetoric has long been about the selfishness of the BCS, of school presidents, of the conferences and how they don't care about fans who "deserve" or "really want" a playoff. Simply put, what about the players?

Novel concept really, being concerned with the actual human beings doing all the work in this process. Bomani and I discuss why the players do seem to be lost in the shuffle, the utter hypocrisy of the schools involved, the disconnect between fans and the reality of college athletics and what can be done to close this gap. To go along with Jones' article I highly recommend the following; Tyler Branch in The Atlantic and all the Joe Nocera info you need from his stop on the podcast.

The second half of the podcast is one of the more chill yet informative and opinionated half hours on college football you'll get. Bomani and I meander through the college football world hitting a myriad of topics that all come up organically in a stroll through the landscape. Everything from Dana Holgorsen's bro-ness plus Jim Mora Jr. and Paul Chryst having new jobs longer than Kevin Sumlin and Larry Fedora to the unique awesomeness that is an Oregon official visit, Texas' high ceiling going forward and Texas A&M making Alabama an even better recruiting school.

Get this podcast in your earholes folks, it'll do you good. Oh and if you're going to be in the New York City area on February 8th, Bomani will be speaking at NYU.

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ITB Podcast: ESPN's Charles Arbuckle Talks BCS Championship Game

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:28:22 GMT

Today we've got the BCS Championship Game as the capper to our season and it is shaping up to be an absolute slugfest. We've got Bama and LSU. The Tide and the Tigers. Alabama and the Bayou Bengals. I broke the game down on Fetch Friday with Russ Mitchell and highly recommend that show as you get ready for the game. Today we've got another BCS Breakdown with ESPN's Charles Arbuckle. Arbuckle is an analyst for the WWL so we get a chance to talk the game from a number of angles.

Charles and I get into the rematch idea one last time before we kickoff a little discussion on what each team can do to win this ball game. Saban vs Miles. Bama's defense vs the option and a quarterback run threat will be the biggest keys to the game and that should tell your story. For Bama to win they need to get good effort from their punters, some tremendous play from not just Trent Richardson but Marquis Maze and Eddie Lacy as well. On the LSU side expect their defense to play strong and dare the Tide to throw the ball. All in all we're looking at a game that should be another classic as the nation's two best teams take the field.

Oh and if you all didn't know Charles Arbuckle is a former UCLA tight end so I take the time to wrap up the podcast by talking about his thoughts on the new hire for the Bruins. We talk Jim Mora and what the new coach can do to help bring some success back to the school. He offers some great insight as someone close to the program that ultimately wants UCLA to get back to winning ball games and competing in the Pac-12.

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ITB Podcast: ESPN's Charles Arbuckle Talks BBVA Compass Bowl

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:24:02 GMT

We've got a great guest on the show this evening to talk about Saturday's BBVA Compass Bowl down in Birmingham, Alabama, someone who will be there talking about all the action, ESPN's own Charles Arbuckle. The analyst joins us to discuss a game that is quite interesting given the circumstances in which both teams enter the game. For SMU we have a team entering who thought they were about to lose their head coach to Arizona State. In Pitt we have the team that ultimately did lose their coach to the Sun Devils.

Should be an interesting contest as both teams are down their best player; Pitt's Ray Graham and SMU's Zach Line, and are fighting to finish off the season on a positive note. For SMU they're looking to get their second bowl win since 1984 and continue to build on the success that June Jones has brought them. Meanwhile Pitt, with new coach Paul Chryst set to take over after the game, is in a familiar space and the guys on the field know they have to fight for one another to be successful after the adversity this program has faced in the last 13 months.

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Friday, It's So Fetch! Vol. 33

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:08:47 GMT

Fetch Friday is running a little late today but for a good reason, we've got a podcast for you folks. With the BCS Championship Game coming on Monday we decided to get one of our favorite guests on the show, Russ Mitchell again folks! Russ is from the fine folks over at the College Football News and if you don't know he is a big time SEC guy. Perfect to talk over the SEC heavyweight match up between the Bayou Bengals and the Crimson Tide.

Russ and I get into the game from a couple angles, starting with the fact that this BCS game is sitting smack dab in middle of the NFL's build up to wild card weekend. College is fighting with the league for the build up to the culmination of their season and that's a tough row to hoe. Then Mitchell and I get into why LSU is the prohibitive favorite in this rematch of the two juggernauts. We also get into what Alabama must do to win this game and that includes a little Eddie Lacy. Some key players who could have huge games to wrap up and you're all set for Monday.

If the widget doesn't work then be sure to download the podcast here. See as the game is in NOLA here's a little tune for you. I was going to go with some Weezy F. Baby or maybe some Master P but you know, kids are listening and all.

Now we can get to something that has been talked around plenty but might as well be discussed here as it is near and dear to my heart. The lost art of tackling and how the disease that is bad tackling has grossly become and epidemic in the college football world.

Tackling is an art form. It is a science. There are so many tangibles and intangibles to tackling that to describe it as merely an effort is to do the complicated practice of tackling a disservice. It isn't just effort. It isn't just strength. It isn't just want to. It isn't just power. Tackling is a beautiful blending of all these things and so much more.

Tackling is about angles, leverage, body control, explosion, strength, head and hand placement, body positioning, hips and feet. Every tackle can't be a "form tackle" but every tackle has to get the opponent on the ground, preferable with him feeling more of the pain than the man doing the tackling.

A lot of the discussion of tackling and how it has degraded points back to the "well they don't tackle in practice" movement that the NFL made popular and injuries have made a standard in college football. Personally, I think that's a lazy explanation, especially when many defensive units do tackle their scout teams, everyone does "thud tempo" in practice and there are scrimmages and live portions of practice.

Simply put, it's an excuse.

You look at missed tackles like the eleventy million missed in the Orange Bowl or the Alamo Bowls pitiful display and you'll see why I think that. These guys aren't just missing tackles because they aren't wrapping up, or because they don't have their head across the body or because they aren't running their feet and end up bull dozed. No, the bulk of your missed tackles are guys reaching and grabbing, guys diving and out of position from the beginning, before they even have a chance to make the tackle an act.

That's angles, that's pursuit, that's run fits, that's getting off blocks and that's all pre-tackle science that has to be taken care of before any attempt is made. If a guy doesn't take a good downhill angle he has no shot at making a legit tackle, all arms and horse collar and diving for him. The same goes for pursuit once the ball carrier has breach the first level. Improper run fits and a failure to get off blocks and what you're left with are defenders reaching for ball carriers not putting pad on pad.

Now, let's say that a guy does get those things in the last paragraph right. The defensive end takes a good angle, the defensive tackle gets off the block, the safety takes the proper pursuit angle or the linebacker makes a good run fit. That happens and now we have a guy actually in position to tackle, unlike the diving, arm grabby, horse collar yanking.

This tackler has taken the "pre-tackle" steps, now he's got to initiate the tackling sequence. That means closing the distance between himself and the ball carrier, making contact, exploding the hips, running his feet, shooting his guns and grabbing cloth to secure the tackle. That is tackling.

Taking the guy to the ground is the end result of running the feet, the last part of the tackle. Everything before that you pick that up in "thud tempo" at practice. At practices there aren't a ton of guys running around diving at ankles, chicken winging teammates, hand grabbing each other. They run to contract, thud up, grab cloth and come to balance.

Yet kids from so many schools get into games and do all the wrong things. Blaming it on tackling in practice is a copout. Fact is kids aren't doing what they're taught. They get into the games and decide to freelance; that means looking to make big hits and avoiding getting ran over by diving at ankles. You'll notice the best defenses are the most disciplined, not just in eliminating blown coverages and being lined up correctly but the teams who tackle well and tackle correctly. That's not a coincidence.

You do what you're taught in the film room, meeting sessions and at practice and good things happen. Both from a schematic stand point and from a football, and in this case tackling, standpoint.

ITB Podcast: New York Times Columnist Joe Nocera Stops By

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:41:38 GMT

Today on the show we've got a real special guest as Joe Nocera lends us a little of his time to talk about the two big college athletics articles he's recently penned. Nocera is a well known columnist from the New York Times who most recently wrote both The College Sports Cartel and Let's Start Paying College Athletes. Both pieces dealt with pressing issues in our sport and coming from his background it is an interesting opinion to get.

The "cartel" article is the first topic we tackle as we look at the NCAA and the override petition signed to hault the $2,000 stipend that was a step towards full cost scholarships. Nocera offers some interesting points and makes it clear that for all the blustering about student athletes and looking out for them schools were quick to revoke the four year scholarship movement and the added money to bridge the gap.

The latter part of the show Nocera and I get into his plan as it pertains to paying college athletes. We outline the plan, hit the Mark Emmert, "subcontractors" argument and discuss how the landscape would change were a plan of this ilk implemented. There is a lot of good info here as Joe Nocera expands upon his plan and wraps up by discussing the possibilities tied to the ruling in the O'Bannon case with regards to athletes.

To listen to the show click here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.

If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner , but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.

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Friday, It's So Fetch! Vol. 32

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:55:37 GMT

The last Friday of the year folks and that makes it extra fetch! New Years Eve is just a day away and that means champagne, party hats confetti, make out sessions and all that jazz. Before we get into the score-gy from last night that was Baylor defeating the Washington Huskies we've got a podcast and a rather interesting engagement to discuss.

Yesterday we had Russ Mitchell on the podcast talking all bowls SEC and one of our favorite guest was up to his usual ways as he discussed Taylor Martinez. Not only was he unimpressed with the Nebraska sophomore but Mitchell went so far as to say the quarterback throws "worse than a girl." If you love "The Sandlot" like I do then you know that them's fighting words and we have Erin Sorensen on the show to talk women's throwing abilities as well as T-Magic. Erin writes for Husker Locker as well as contributes to the Unsportsmanlike Conduct show on 1620 The Zone in Omaha, also she is a girl so Russ did his best to offend on all levels.

If you can't grab the show through the widget be sure to click here to get the download. Now, on to the fetch as we close out the year with one of my personal favorite diddies.

Yes we'll discuss Baylor and Washington because that game was absolutely insane to watch but first we've got one of my sports favorites in the news, I guess he loved it so he put a ring on it.

Michael Jordan is engaged yo!

That's right the greatest basketball player of all time has decided to marry his model girlfriend Yvette Prieto. Feel free to discuss this amongst yourselves the only legitimate comment to be made by me is that I doubt he goes all no prenup on this one given how his last marriage ended and the whole Kobe Bryant thing we will be witnessing now.

Personally, if I ever trick some woman into marrying me I will get a prenup too, it will protect things that are dear to me. Like my slingshot, the half drank fifth of bourbon I have and my IBM thinkpad. Without those things I could not run this empire.

Now to get serious we've got the Baylor Bears who put up 67 points on the Washington Huskies in the Alamo Bowl last night. Fantastic stuff out of Art Briles offense right? Just a beat down. Yeah it would be except they won by 11, giving up 56 points to the Washington Huskies.

Heisman winner Robert Griffin III put up some 350 total yards of offense and two touchdowns. Stellar performance for the Heisman winner and a great win for the Bears program who had not won a bowl game since 1992. The kid is likely headed to the NFL when the deadline hits and he's shown some tangible skills that make him a legit prospect for a team to believe they can attach their future to.

Scariest thing about Griffin's performance isn't his numbers, it is that Washington's Keith Price had better numbers. Price put up 477 total yards and accounted for seven total touchdowns. SEVEN. This is a kid who is doing what folks expected Jake Locker to do for the Huskies. It certainly appears that Steven Sarkisian has found "his guy" with respect to a player capable of navigating the waters for him at the quarterback position. Price has had a great season and will enter the 2012 campaign with high hopes, despite the departure of stand out running back Chris Polk.

Terrance Ganaway the Baylor running back that has been getting it done all year also showed the nation what he is all about going for 200 yards and five touchdowns to be the real player of the night for Baylor. FIVE TOUCHDOWNS folks. That is a man's effort.

And effort. It is a beautiful thing when you get to see it. It can also be quite ugly when you don't see it. That's what we had last night, two teams that were totally incapable on the defensive side of the football. Incomplete passes were just bad throws, not actual break ups. Punts were accidents. Missed field goals were simply "why didn't go for the TD" plays.

If you're Art Briles or Steve Sarkisian, two guys who put offense above all else, surely now is the point where you try to figure out what the hell has been going on down on the defensive practice field. Phil Bennett went from producing solid defenses at Pitt with Dave Wannstedt to being amongst the nation's worst. Nick Holt, a guy that actually has some decent pieces, just watched his guys get shredded on a damn near weekly basis.

There really are only two answers here if you're Holt or Bennett; you suck at your job and/or you're being totally handcuffed thanks to the recruiting strategies of your program. Hard to believe that Bennett, a guy that's built some solid defensive units through out his career, somehow "lost" the "it" you need from an X's and O's standpoint. Nick Holt is a bit less of a sure thing but he does have a track record of putting pieces in position to succeed.

Out of this game it seems both guys are hamstrung by the lack of talent that exists on one side of the ball. Nick Holt got some great play out of his defensive line in the passing game, sacking RG3 several times but he also got some garbage out of that unit as evidenced by their inability to stop the run game of the Bears. Phil Bennett had guys that were sort of, kind of around the ball but couldn't tackle, didn't take good steps and just overall weren't capable.

The worst at times was the body language on both sides where guys just seemed to be looking at the clock thinking, "damn, it's only the third quarter?"

Call me a defensive snob. Call me a defensive minded curmedgeon. Call me a defense focused contrarian or a party pooper. That shit wasn't "fun" to me. It was funny but only because we're laughing at the ineptitude of those poor guys out there haplessly running around, not because it is some awesome football showcase.

In the end it was totally embarrassing. I feel bad for those guys, getting sent out there, unprepared and totally helpless against their offensive counterparts. If both men remain at their posts they need help, asap. Get these guys some players they can succeed with.

ITB Podcast: Russ Mitchell Of CFN Talks Big Bowl Games

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:49:52 GMT

Today we've got long time friend of the program Russ Mitchell from College Football News on the show to talk about some serious bowl action. Today we have a mega breakdown from the SEC's bowl match ups as the league is set to have eight games of note in the next week plus, including the BCS Championship. The SEC will be making up half of the match up in the Music City, Liberty, Chick-fil-A, Outback, Capital One, Gator and Cotton Bowls this season and 100% of the BCS Championship.

As we're inclined to do Russ and I get into them from the top to the bottom starting with Mississippi State taking on Wake Forest in a game where the Bulldogs look to take out their SEC West frustrations on the Demon Deacons by slapping them around and running the ball. In the Liberty Bowl Vandy takes on Cinci in a game where we find out how good the Big East Co-Champs really are, one third of them has already lost to NC State. CFA game has an Auburn team in disarray about to get a Virginia team that wants to power through them running the ball.

Three straight Big Ten-SEC match ups as Georgia takes on Michigan State, South Carolina squares off with Nebraska and Ohio State goes up against Florida. We hit these pretty hard as we look at who is actually good, who is a paper tiger and how these three match ups for bragging rights will shake out.

Oh, and there's a little BCS title game that we get into really, really heavy. We disagree, we agree, we debate and we go back and forth around this game from a myriad of angles. One of the most fun discussions of the title game that we've had to date.

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ITB Podcast: David Pollack From ESPN Stops By

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:02:28 GMT

We've got a great podcast to speed you into the New Year as one of our favorites joins us on the show, former Dawgs defensive end David Pollack. Pollack is currently an ESPN analyst and co-host of the Palmer and Pollack show on ESPNU. He's been great to hear on Gameday and spots on The Experts talking ball because, as is always the case, hearing dudes talk defense instead of how great offense is and lame storylines is a win for me.

David and I start off talking about the Dawgs and how Todd Grantham has brought a bit of the attitude they require to the party and how they program as a whole has benefited from his addition. We get into how good Michigan State is and wrap up the Outback Bowl chat by getting into my favorite Dawg; Orson Charles.

Then we get into the Fiesta Bowl, a game that for those of you who love points, should be mighty interesting. Pollack and I talk about Stanford benefiting more from the extra prep time and how dynamic their use of three tight end sets is throughout the game. With no discernable coaching edge, we'll be looking at which quarterback is able to score that extra touchdown his team needs to win.

Last we get to the BCS Championship game and all the glory that two defensive happy guys can have talking about Bama and LSU. That's what this is, talking about the differences, the brilliance behind each scheme and what makes them work. Just a really fun conversation that I'm glad you all get to enjoy.

Oh and we also talk about the stupid spread punt formation. It sucks.

To listen to the show click here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.

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ITB Podcast: Bill Connelly Stops By To Talk Bowls & Mizzou To SEC

inthebleachers@gmail.com (In The Bleachers College Football Podcast) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:08:15 GMT

We've got Bill Connelly on the podcast talking some bowl action so this is a must listen folks. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bill he can be found doing football writings over at SB Nation, giving you all the Mizzou info for Rock M Nation and being all over the stats at Football Outsiders. All three are great and I definitely recommend checking them out.

Instead of hitting all of the bowl we get to talk about some of the more intriguing match ups out there on the Non-BCS Bowl front, starting with the TicketCity Bowl between Houston and Penn State. Attitude is a big thing for this game and we'll see what each of these teams gives us when they take the field. The discussion of departed coaches and a lack of enthusiasm brings up a general talk about how a coach who is fired or takes a new job handles coaching in the bowl game.

Bill and I also talk a little Alamo Bowl as the Robert Griffin III to the NFL train has really taken off recently. How much should a bowl game play into the "go pro" decision from an NFL and a player's standpoint? With the Champs Sports bowl we hit on FSU-Notre Dame in a game where both teams have a lot to be optimistic about. In the Outback Bowl you've got a Georgia team that's much improved and a Michigan State team that is damn good; but the 49-7 Alabama beat down of Sparty is still fresh in our minds and they have some proving to do.

Then we get to the Independence Bowl where Bill's Mizzou Tigers are taking on my North Carolina Tar Heels. We get a quick run down on both squads for those not familiar with one or both teams then we talk about what folks should expect in this game.

To listen to the show click here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.

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